


creeping up

by princessaluraa (meksters)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Angst, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Minor Character Death, Odesta AU - Freeform, Suicidal Thoughts (Minor), identity crisis, its not sad but its definitely not happy, light mentions of ptsd, or I guess we'll see, you can't have a hunger games au without angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 12:19:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13213635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meksters/pseuds/princessaluraa
Summary: Snippets of Lance and Pidge's relationship leading up to the rebellion.Based off of the Pidgance Month 2k17 prompt: Secrets.





	creeping up

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to do a Plance hunger games AU for a while but never was able to sit down and formulate it so I ended up making small passages and grouping them together in some sort of a timeline. It was going to be a 5 plus 1 type thing but nah...  
> This has not been beta'd so if you see any mistakes, please point them out! Thank you and enjoy!

**1.**

Lance is at a clients apartment when the games end. The purple-eyed woman mumbles something incoherent against his arm as Lance sits up. Silk sheets pool at his hips, doing little to protect him from the cold of the room. His heart sinks a little at the sight.

On the television is the tribute from District 7. At least that’s who he thinks she is, he’s had a lot to drink but he knows that it definitely isn’t the girl from 4. There is so much blood, enough to reel painful memories from the depths of his mind. The small girl is kneeling beside her opponent as her chest heaves unevenly. She holds an axe in her trembling hands. There are large gashes in various parts of her body which are bleeding heavily but she doesn’t seem to care. The camera angle switches so that the audience can see her face. There is a large crack spidering from the center of her visor. She can’t see anything with a crack that big. She must have gotten lucky when she lunged forward, slashing the large boy from two with her small weapon.

The hovercraft comes to pick her up but the girl does not move right away. Slowly, she stands, and makes her way onto the hovercraft.

Right away the cameras cut to Bibohbi for a recap of the nights events. Lance checks over his shoulder to make sure Nyma is asleep so he can leave. He never likes to stay the night, especially during the games. It's not even like she paid for him to stay the night either…

Once Lance pulls on his trousers and dress shirt, he carefully makes his way out of the apartment. Most of the Capitol’s citizens are out watching the games in the City Center, even at this ungodly hour, so he won’t have to worry about being seen as much. _Not that they don’t know what I’m doing_ , he thinks bitterly. When he finally reaches the lobby of the tall building, Lance sees the car outside waiting for him. He briefly wonders how long they’ve been there, but finds he doesn’t care.

Warm air greets him when he walks outside. It is nothing like the heat they have in District 4, but it is pleasant. It may be the only pleasant thing this place has to offer. The driver walks around the car to open the door for Lance, closing the door once he is seated. As they drive back to the Tribute Center, Lance can’t help but think of the new victor. The new survivor, he tells himself. He tries not to think about the bets that were placed on her, about the highest paying sponsor sending her that extra oxygen tank, about the way her cheeks flushed when Bibohbi asked if she had a lover back in her district.

 _“I think I’m far too young have a_ lover”  She had said.

 _“Katie, now is the time for adventure and fun!”_ The thin man said, _“I’m_ sure _that once you return home, there will be plenty of people who would love to have you!”_

And he was right. There will be plenty of people who want her, but only Alfor decides who can have her.

**2.**

Her interview goes smoothly enough. She rambled during her tribute interview and that habit has not changed since she’s become a victor. Despite the quickness of her words, she seems alright. _She puts up a good front_ , Lance thinks as the interview plays on the holovision. Katie Holt ended up killing 5 tributes. It was a stunning upset that no one saw coming. She had been hiding for most of the games, doing her best to avoid the other tributes. The gamemakers didn't take too kindly to this strategy, however. They were down to the final eight tributes and there hadn't been a canon in days. With the tributes all being so far away from each other, the gamemakers decided to take action and sent a wave out through the arena. Anyone who wasn't on higher ground got caught up and drowned. As for the rest of them, they were now limited to a miles worth of land and there wasn't much space to hide.

Within ten hours, Katie Holt was the victor of the 70th Hunger Games. She became something inhuman, like a child possessed. There was a fire in her eyes and an absolutely savage look to her as she jumped on top of the male tribute from 1 and smashed his visor with a rock and suffocated him. He hadn’t been alone but that didn’t mean a thing to Katie. The boy’s district partner lunged at her with a steel katar but Katie was too fast, too wild.

It took two weeks for Katie Holt to stabilize and heal enough to be cleared for her victor interview. He even managed to get one of the Capitol nurses to tell him whether or not she would make it. They hadn’t had a victor die so recently after the games in nearly sixty years. He would have loved to see the faces of the Capitol citizens had she died. But Katie Holt survived, just like she survived two weeks in icy, low oxygen hell.

She smiles during the interview, wide and toothy. It never reaches her eyes but Bibohbi doesn’t notice.

Lance does.

**3.**

District 4 has always had big celebrations for the Victory tour, whether or not their tributes won. The year he won, the district partied for 4 straight days. He _was_ popular, after all. It was their way of honoring the deceased while maintaining the illusion of loyalty to the Capitol.

This year, they ‘celebrated’ for two days as opposed to the one day celebration usually given to victors from other districts. He learns that while he had been entertaining clients, Katie struck up an alliance with the girl from 4. The alliance lasted for the whole duration of the games. It ended only when his district’s tribute, Plaxum, got caught up in the big wave that decimated most of the frost covered forest near the last few days of the games.

Currently, Lance is leaning against one of the columns of the gazebo where the band plays an upbeat song. There are white tents pitched all along the seashore, with pretty lights strung up above the circular dance floor. He can smell Milo’s tostones from across the dance floor and makes his way past the hordes of dancing people to grab a plateful.

“Careful now, the ladies won’t want to dance with you if you eat so much.” Milo says, his voice matching the tempo of the song.

 _That's what I'm counting on_ , Lance thinks. Instead he smirks and says, “Please, who could resist all _this?_ ”

“I could name a few people…” Milo teases.

“I would love to meet them.” Lance says.

He gives the older man a smile and makes his way towards the water. He has known Milo since he was a kid. The man was like family and with the current relationship he had with his own… well it was nice to speak to someone who knew him. Or, knew who he _was_.

Lance walks past the dance floor, past the vendors, and past the sitting area to the beach. People sit on blankets all around him but none of them are too close to the water. It tends to be too cold for most people this time of year but Lance has found that he loves the chill. Thankfully, no one seems to notice him and he is able to maneuver through the scattered picnic blankets to the shoreline. He can see one single silhouette as his feet sink into the cool sand with every step. As he gets closer, he can see the outline of long hair billowing in the wind.

He doesn't realize who it is until he's parallel to her on the wet sand.

His feet are met with the cold sensation of the winter water as he walks toward her. She sits on the wet sand as the waves lap at her feet. She doesn't seem to notice him moving toward her and if she does, she's makes no indication. When he is about a meter away he can see it. She's been crying.

“Hey, I'm Lance.” he says gently, not wanting to startle her. “You're Katie, right?”

“... no.”

He knows for a fact that this is Katie Holt, victor of the 70th hunger games. However, he knows better than to pressure someone who just survived the arena.

“Oh, I'm sorry.” Lance says, “What's your name then?”

“Why do you care?” She says, monotonously. She hasn't look at him once since he started talking but he doesn't think seeing who he is would change anything for her.

“Because I've never seen you around and yeah, District 4 is big, but I think I would remember seeing a girl as pretty as you.” He hates the way he slips into _that voice_.

She whips her head around to look at him, eyes widening when she finally sees who he is.

“Of course…” She mumbles. Her legs untwist themselves from their folded position on the sand to fold up to her knees. “Why don't you find someone who actually cares about who you are and go fuck them?”

_Ouch._

“I'm not trying to sleep with you, I'm trying to help you.” he tries to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He has to be careful, even in 4, but he reminds himself that what is happening to him will happen to her. And pretty soon, he realizes.

“Help me?” She spits, “You don't even know me, how could you possibly help me?” Fresh tears pool at the corners of her eyes but she makes to attempt to wipe them away.

“In case you've forgotten, _Katie_ , I've been through what you're going through.” She flinches at the name.

“Don't call me that.” She whispers it but her voice is loud enough for Lance to hear over the crashing waves. He pauses for a moment, his stomach dropping as he registers the vulnerability in her voice. The waves crash in front of them and Lance does not move closer.

“The what should I call you? You never answered me before.”

“ _Nothing._ Don't call me anything.” She gets up and pushes past him. Her dress billows in the wind and her feet kick up sand as she makes her way back to the crowded tents.

He sits down where she once sat and looks out at the ocean. Lance did this a lot when he first got back. The continuous motion of the crashing waves would calm him whenever he had a nightmare or an attack. Coran would be the only one who could talk him into going home when he was out for too long.

He still comes out to watch the waves but he isn't nearly as as bad as he was. There are days, weeks even, where he doesn't recognize himself. The person he's become after the games isn't the same boy who went into the arena, with wide smiles and arrogance to rival careers from 1 and 2. Lance has become a person he can't recognize, but he thanks whatever gods are left that he can recognize anything at all.

**4.**

The absolute silence of the train fascinated her. There was no scraping of the wheels against the track and there was no motion either. The only way she could tell that the train was moving was by looking out the window at the blur of a landscape passing her.

It had been nearly six months since she won the Hunger Games and she still doesn't feel like herself, like _Katie._ _Katie_ didn't wake her parents in the middle of the night because she had another nightmare. _Katie_ didn't look at pretty brunettes and immediately see blood. _Katie_ didn't sleep with a knife under her pillow… but _she_ did.

If only she could figure out who _she_ was. Or is.

Katie Holt killed 5 tributes. No one saw it coming, not even those that bet on her.

She doesn't remember their names but she remembers their faces. She remembers the weight of the katar in her hand, the feeling as she plunged it into the tributes flesh. They were all older than her but they all looked so young and for the life of her she can't forget their faces.

District 3 was a disaster for her. The families of the kids she killed were looking at her with utter contempt and loathing. It wasn't anything new, she got the same looks from districts 1, 2, and 10. That didn’t stop her from wanting to fling herself from the balcony she stood on. _They’d probably kill me before the fall could_ , she thought.

“Holt, stop daydreaming!”

She jolts up at the deep, booming sound of the man’s voice. She grabs the book on the bedside table, holding it up like a weapon.

“Gonna bludgeon me to death with a book, Holt?” The disembodied voice finds its head in one Yew Iverson, victor of the 37th hunger games and her mentor.

She says nothing.

“We’re almost at 4. Here’s your notes.” He tosses a bound stack of flashcards, giving her just enough time to catch it. He leaves the room before she can respond.

The landscape still blurs in front of her but she can just start to see the outlines of treetops in the distance. She hopes that District 4 isn’t as bad as the rest of them.

**5.**

She would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought of Plaxum since the hunger games.

Because she thought of Plaxum everyday.

The tribute from district 4 was so much more skilled than her. She had drive, a will to live that couldn’t be matched by anyone else in the arena. Everyday she wonders what Plaxum saw in her, what she was thinking when she decided they should work together. Because Katie just never could wrap her head around why a career from District 4 would team up with her, an inexperienced smartass from the wood district. That’s what she’s thinking about right now as she is reading a speech to all of District 4. A speech about how brave Plaxum and Reed were.

Their families are elevated on separate platforms, a warning to all the other families that they too, could one day sit up there. 


End file.
